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Sony closes Studio Liverpool

UPDATE

A reliable source has told Eurogamer the studio was working on a "dramatically different" Wipeout title for the next PlayStation console. It had been in production for over a year and was said to be "far along."

They were also told, by a different source, that a title using LA Noire style motion capture and centred around gangsters was also in the works.

Sony has issued an official statement confirming the closure of Studio Liverpool.

"As part of SCE Worldwide Studios, we do regular reviews to ensure that the resources we have can create and produce high quality, innovative and commercially viable projects in an increasingly competitive market place," it reads.

"As part of this process, we have reviewed and assessed all current and planned projects for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to our European Studios.

"It has been decided that Liverpool Studio should be closed. Liverpool Studio has been an important part of SCE Worldwide Studios since the outset of PlayStation, and have contributed greatly to PlayStation over the years. Everyone connected with Liverpool Studio, past and present, can be very proud of their achievements.

"However, it was felt that by focusing our investment plans on other Studios that are currently working on exciting new projects, we would be in a stronger position to offer the best possible content for our consumers. Our Liverpool Facility will continue to operate, housing a number of other vital WWS!E and SCEE Departments.

"This should not take anything away from the great work WWS are doing and the incredible games and services that we have made, and continue to make."

Original story

Reports are circulating, supposedly confirmed by Sony at source, that Studio Liverpool has closed, ending 28 years of development.

According to CVG, Michael Denny visited the office on Wednesday to confirm that the time had come to shutter the developer. Sony are said to be looking to relocate as many staff as possible internally.

"It has been decided that production on a number of projects within Studio Liverpool will cease immediately due to project prioritisation," read a statement at the time.

"Our North West Studio Group has been and will continue to be a vital cog in the WWS family, with a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC and this decision will have no impact of the role that the North West Studio Group will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms."

Sony has been contacted for an official statement regarding the situation.

Founded as Psygnosis in 1984, the studio had become best known for the Wipeout series, a Sony staple which has graced every one of the platform holders machines since debuting on the original PlayStation in 1995. The studio's most recent release was Wipeout 2048 for the Vita.

So sad - one of my very favourite developers ever, from titles way back like Barbarian, Shadow of the Beast and Lemmings all the way up to the sublime Wipeout HD. If the Wipeout series wasn't enough to maintain the development team - and clearly it hasn't been especially successful since the PS1 days - how about letting them loose on something entirely new, or allowing the team to work on two or three small downloadable games in the same style as Double Fine? So very sad; hopefully a new studio will rise from the ashes or a significant number of staff will be offered positions at Evolution.

One of the guys at Psygnosis was good enough to send me some discs of game asset graphics for a school project many years ago (and I'm 90% sure I never wrote to say a big thanks, as they were the only studio that sent me anything).

I enjoyed many of the Psygnosis games immensely when I was younger, and Wipeout was the reason I bought a Playstation back in 1997. I will hugely miss them, and wish everyone involved the best for the future.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Martin Appleton on 22nd August 2012 3:10pm

There's room at the inn here at Serious Parody (Dundee). We're looking for several experienced programmers to work on console games. So if anyone effected fancies a move, send CV's to careers@serious-parody.com we're also looking for high quality animators too.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Daniel Hinkles on 22nd August 2012 7:10pm

Really sorry to hear about this. I feel especially bad for my friends who moved to Sony Liverpool after Bizarre closed.

Wish everyone affected the best of luck finding work. I know it's a contentious issue and I hate to see the UK industry diminished, but if it's an option for you, I'd highly recommend a move to Canada.

Very sad news indeed. The original WipeOut was a great influence and pointed me in the direction of the games industry. So many great games from that studio, just a massive heritage. Best of luck to those affected. We have current job vacancies at Atomhawk which may be of some help - http://www.atomhawk.com/working.html

What a chronicle of the rise and fall of the consumer game scene in the UK ...Psygnosis, Sony PS, Wipeout... and now the fall!

The whole story of the Liverpool game scene (the highs and the lows) needs to be written down before it is lost - I tried to cover the rise and fall of Imagine in the early days but never got close to a final draft. The issues also of the whole BugByte, Elite, Ocean and US Gold story needs reporting - I know for many this will be uncomfortable, but we need a true history of UK development rather than a sugar-coated 'faction'.

Sad news indeed, but didn't Sony make a very similar announcement about the studio in early 2010? I could be mistaken though, and I do hope the development team (as Studio Liverpool) returns to the site eventually.

Wow, I would have thought that a new WipeOut title would be just what a next generation PlayStation would like to have as a system seller. I put so many hours into XL and that soundtrack (and the Red Bull ads) are burned into my brain. Sad to see them wrap it up like this.

I think WWS will be alright, but it shows how rough things are for AAA development that the ax will fall here. I was a big fan of Colon Wars... heck, I still am and have been waiting on a sequel for more than a decade. Still, I've oft wondered how much of Psynosis was still in that studio anymore.

Sony LIverpool was Psygnosis renamed. It grew out of the ashes of Imagine Software which in turn grew out of the ashes of the computer retailer MIcrodigital, founded in 1978. People like Eugene Evans and Mark Butler worked at all three. So some incredible heritage now gone. Good luck to all who have lost their jobs.

This will not be the last big console studio to close. The market for their products has collapsed. Fortunately the app market is booming like crazy and is taking up the slack. According to the Economist, apps already keep over 300,000 people employed in America, we can do better!

For those who have lost their jobs it might be worth looking at Silicon Spa in sunny Warwickshire. There are 14+ game studios here with many more within commuting distance. This gives far more job security because there is always someone recruiting. Also it is far easier to start up a new studio here because the whole ecosystem is in place. The main business in this town is video games!

This will not be the last big console studio to close. The market for their products has collapsed. Fortunately the app market is booming like crazy and is taking up the slack. According to the Economist, apps already keep over 300,000 people employed in America, we can do better!

Seriously Bruce, how many people are out of work here, and you're going to use this thread to gloat over the supposed demise of console games for the umpteenth time? *shakes head*

We're super cut up about this at The Creative Assembly, especially as we have lots of ex-Psygnosis staffers here.

We'll be visiting Liverpool next week to meet any of the guys and gals affected who'd like to meet us, and talk about potential positions here in sunny Horsham. We'll update via our Twitter account @CareersatCA or for further info give me a buzz directly at alex.wright-manning@creative-assembly.com

Horrible news for everyone involved - the bottom line is I'm sure that everybody there is highly employable. The biggest challenge will be willingness/ability to relocate.

There are a good number of smaller studios in the north-west which emerged from the ashes of Bizarre Creations, Juice/THQ Digital etc. Moving out of the industry there's a vibrant Digital Marketing agency sector (especially in Manchester) and of course the BBC in Salford.

Am genuinely sad and angry about this news! Psygnosis games in particular contributed significantly to the enjoyment of my youth :(

Would love chat informally to anyone affected about positions available here at Jagex Games Studios. We have 77 vacancies at the moment across most conceivable business functions, so please do feel entirely free to ping me an email peter.lovell@jagex.com, message me on twitter @the_shov, or buzz me on LinkedIn (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/peterlovell) to explore opportunities.

A full list of our vacancies can be found on www.jagex.com/careers/ and we can offer significant support towards relocating to Cambridge. My thoughts go out to you all though and I sincerely wish you all the best.

Now I've calmed a little about the studio's closure, I'm starting to question why this was allowed to happen. I mean, in the ‘80s and ‘90s Psygnosis was a terrifically busy and consistent publisher and developer. They really did pump out an incredible number of games, many of which are still regarded as classics, but since the company dropped the Psygnosis moniker and became Sony Liverpool their output and innovation slowed and they focused almost solely on racing games. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but surely someone high up the ladder must have realised that the racing genre – and in particular the arcade racer – was becoming less popular with the relative failure of games like PGR4 and the Formula 1 series, and the disaster of Blur and Split/Second? So why not try to evolve before even the mighty Wipeout falls foul of the same consumer disinterest. Rumours that they were working on a Splinter Cell-esque stealth game are encouraging (perhaps the rumoured Syphon Filter reboot?), but that obviously wasn’t too far into development and for a decade almost all of their eggs have been in the Wipeout basket. To close Sony Liverpool on what I expect was a disappointing performance of 2048 seems incredibly unfair when the Vita as a whole platform is struggling. I even think being offered the opportunity to make some downloadable games in a similar way to Double Fine would have been a good change for the team – maybe hold a similar event to Amnesia Fortnight and see what comes out of it.

It really is a shame that this is how the Psygnosis story ends. I agree with Kevin Williams that the story should be chronicled somewhere, be it in articles here or a book or something. After all, we are talking about one of the world’s oldest development companies and one of the veterans of the British videogame industry. I’d be very interested to know more about the studio’s situation over the last 5 or 10 years, and whether anyone in a position of influence acknowledged that perhaps they needed to branch out beyond Wipeout. As someone who was a huge fan of their PS1 output like G-Police, Colony Wars, Destruction Derby and Rollcage, this is doubly frustrating as it means there will likely never be a chance of these franchises being revived.

I think it is sad that Sony Liverpool is gone but it reflects the fact that from about 2000 on all we have had in the North West were Racing Game developers. The whole of that market has pretty much gone now.

Psygnosis was mismanaged into self combustion. It gave lots of people a unique chance to learn and get their first breaks in the industry but was never going to be allowed to survive under the Sony brand.

There are a number of new mobile devs in Liverpool now and even a new publisher (Ripstone) but between us we probably only employ 70 or 80 people. Less than one old console development team. It would be wrong to say that game development is dead in Liverpool and I am sure that from the 20 odd indies one or two will be very successful but I doubt we will look to create lots of jobs.

I think the grim reality of development cost is horrendous, nevertheless the sony liverpool dev team could be allowed to develop small fun racing titles not related to the wipeout series to further embrace the mobile and handheld age. IN some ways, I suspect with the acquisition of Gakai, they had to figure out where costs could be reduced...and in the end, the closure of the Dev team was the unfortunate result.

nevertheless, the history and pedigree will show hopefully in any new outfit that emerges! All the best to your endeavours!

Shadow of the Beast and Walker are two games that I loved as a child and have made such an impact to my gaming life. Sad sad times that genuine talent gets closed down because the non thinking majority would rather play crud like farmville.